Projects & Opportunities

OGG is currently focusing on several projects and opportunities around the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Hawaii. All could serve as excellent breeding grounds for establishing new public-private partnerships across the Netherlands and North-America, whether it is on sustainable food production, resiliency strategies or water and energy efficiency.

Resiliency

Bay Area Resiliency Design Challenge

Recently, the City of San Francisco and its larger Bay Area partners announced they are preparing to launch the Bay Area Resiliency Design Challenge (BARDC). With its specific focus on the San Francisco Bay ands shoreline, BARDC is inspired by the New York’s Rebuild by Design (RBD), an international multi-stage planning and design competition. Launched in 2013 by President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, RBD responded to the physical and structural damage after the disastrous October 2012 super storm that affected millions of people in 24 states and did over $65 billion in property damage. Similarly, the goal of BARDC to develop an innovative and unified strategic and tactical vision for a more sustainable, safe and resilient future for the Bay Area, now under the increasing threats of climate change and seismic risks.

Act now!

In order to be part of in this exciting initiative, the Dutch “resiliency sector” must act now. By September 2016 multidisciplinary teams should be formed, since at that time the competition will be formally announced and opened for participation. Together, OGG, the Netherlands Consulate General of San Francisco and the Netherlands Embassy in Washington D.C. are currently joining forces to inform and leverage the Dutch companies and knowledge partners and to line up interested parties on the Dutch and local Bay Area sides.
Please find here more detailed information about BARDC

If you are interested in learning more about BARDC or expressing your interest in becoming part of one or more multidisciplinary teams, please reach out to:
Wietske van Erp Taalman Kip (Program Manager OrangeGoesGreen) – wietske@realnewenergy.com
Pui San Tam (Economic Officer Netherlands Consulate General San Francisco) – sfn-ea@minbuza.nl

California delegation visit to the Netherlands 2016

Following last year’s economic mission of Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Ploumen and Rotterdam Major Aboutaleb, a select delegation of Californian government leaders, agricultural representatives and urban sustainability professionals will be invited to visit the Netherlands in the spring of 2016. The trip intends to provide the Californian participants with useful tools distilled from a variety of successful P3 projects focused on resiliency, future proof urban developments, resource conserving sustainable agriculture, financing models, and much more.

The program is currently under development and more information will follow shortly as details are confirmed.

LA River Revitalization

The Los Angeles River and the larger LA Watershed represent an important resource to the City of Los Angeles and its surrounding region. At present, however, many potential initiatives and plans for this relatively untapped resource are underfunded, underutilized or not utilized at all. For the last couple of years, the Netherlands Consulate General of San Francisco has been expanding and deepening its relations with the extremely complex LA stakeholder ecosystem. With Henk Ovink, Water Envoy for the Netherlands, as one of the advisors to the Frank Gehry team, the Dutch have the opportunity to stay abreast of upcoming opportunities to engage in this important, high-profile restoration project.

The California Department of Water Resources recently released the Integrated Regional Water Management Grant Program Proposition 1 Draft that allocated $98 million to the Los Angeles area. With its anticipated final release in April 2016, we are exploring how and to what extent Dutch knowledge and expertise can contribute to this important project.

Climate Smart Agriculture

Climate Smart Agriculture Workshop 2016

This spring, our core members Deltares, Priva and Wageningen University, the Netherlands Consulate General of San Francisco and other Dutch water experts, will host a multi-day workshop in California together will a selection of key local stakeholders. The overall workshop will focus on water efficiency practices and knowledge exchange, primarily in the agricultural sector, but also in the urban context.

This upcoming event coincides with the ambitions of Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, who visited the Netherlands the week of December 7th 2015.

In her blog she concluded the following: “In all of our meetings and visits so far, the Dutch have stressed the approach of business, academia and government working collaboratively to solve on-farm challenges associated with climate change. It has resulted in some very impressive work and synergies among various stakeholders. I’m looking forward to a time when we have multi-national collaboration between California and the Netherlands on climate smart agriculture, involving business, academia and government working for a more sustainable future”.

The program is currently under development and more information will follow shortly as details are confirmed.

GoodSpheres Greenhouses Hawaii

GoodSpheres Greenhouses is an innovative greenhouse solution that provides fresh fruits and vegetables for under-served, remote locations and island communities that currently endure low availability of fresh produce, localized crises and/or high food and/or energy prices. The key for a successful development and launch of GoodSpheres is to achieve reliably high crop yields with net-zero energy and water consumption using proven, affordable greenhouse technology. GoodSpheres, an OrangeGoesGreen initiative, is led by Wageningen University, Priva and Real NewEnergy. In collaboration, we hope to expand this program and to include local partners in all project locations where GoodSpheres will be deployed.

About 85-90% of Hawaii’s food is imported, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters and global events that could disrupt shipping and the food supplies. A timely and innovative investment in programs and projects that support greater food self-sufficiency will result in economic, social and environmental benefits for the State of Hawaii. The state’s combination of high energy prices, the high cost of pumping or moving water and the islands’ ideal climatological circumstances makes a powerful and compelling business case for a net-zero energy, net-zero water greenhouse solution in Hawaii.

OGG has been in constant communication with honorary consul Henk B. Rogers, who is personally actively engaged in Hawaiian energy matters through his Blue Planet Foundation. Currently we are exploring to what extend the Waimea Hawaiian Homesteader’s Association would be interested to learn more about GoodSpheres Greenhouses in light of Waimea Nui Agricultural Complex that they are developing on Big Island.

More info?

If you would like more info about our projects and opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact us.